Although soldiers suffered the greatest hardship during the war, their mothers, wives, and daughters also made extreme sacrifices for the Revolution. With nearly nine out of ten Americans living in rural areas, most women were far from the battle lines. But while the men were serving in the military, it was the women who were left in charge of running farm households and struggling for survival.

Life was uncertain—and often short—in the eighteenth century, especially during the Revolution. Women were married by the time they were eighteen, and marriage was an arrangement between families, not between young men and women. The romantic desires of the young were sometimes taken into account, but usually, girls were expected to marry boys who would improve the family's wealth or social position.

With little access to birth control, women usually became pregnant soon after marriage, and...